Birthday Book Haul (March 2018)

It’s my birthday and I’ll buy books if I want to! And I want to, so I did. I did all my book buying online at the beginning of the month so they’d all arrive in time for my birthday so I could wrap them up – to me, you’re the greatest, with love, from me. All but one arrived, so yay for me!

Compared to last year, I reigned it in quite a bit this year, buying some of the pricier books I’ve been wanting to read for ages – books that I’d usually keep checking on multiple websites, hoping the price has dropped, but alas, it never does. And I also bought a few decent priced books that, you know, I just really want to keep on my shelf for months before I finally read them read. so, without further ado…

Birthday Book Haul

They Can’t Kill Us All: The Story of Black Lives Matter by Wesley Lowery

A deeply reported book on the birth of the Black Lives Matter movement, offering unparalleled insight into the reality of police violence in America, and an intimate, moving portrait of those working to end it

In over a year of on-the-ground reportage, Washington Post writer Wesley Lowery traveled across the US to uncover life inside the most heavily policed, if otherwise neglected, corners of America today.

In an effort to grasp the scale of the response to Michael Brown’s death and understand the magnitude of the problem police violence represents, Lowery conducted hundreds of interviews with the families of victims of police brutality, as well as with local activists working to stop it. Lowery investigates the cumulative effect of decades of racially biased policing in segregated neighborhoods with constant discrimination, failing schools, crumbling infrastructure and too few jobs.

Offering a historically informed look at the standoff between the police and those they are sworn to protect, They Can’t Kill Us All demonstrates that civil unrest is just one tool of resistance in the broader struggle for justice. And at the end of President Obama’s tenure, it grapples with a worrying and largely unexamined aspect of his legacy: the failure to deliver tangible security and opportunity to the marginalised Americans most in need of it.

Rest in Power: The Enduring Life of Trayvon Martin by Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin

The intimate and inspiring untold story of the life of Trayvon Martin, and the movement he inspired from the people who were closest to him, his parents. You know, when Trayvon Martin was first shot I said that this could have been my son. Another way of saying that is Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago. President Barack Obama. On a cool February evening in 2012, in a small city in central Florida, a fatal bullet was fired into 17-year-old Trayvon Martin s chest. Within minutes, he took his last breath. Martin was a black teenaged boy in the American south, violently killed well before his time, a tragedy, but a common one in America. What makes this story different is the will of his parents to find justice for their son and to make his too-brief life meaningful. Through Sybrina and Tracy s efforts, the events of that dark night have transformed into a movement that has forever altered the country. This is a parents story, and at its heart, an act of redemption for the lost life of their son. Through them, we see Trayvon as the child he was a sometimes troubled but loveable kid being raised by an improvised family that fiercely protected him. They tell the story of the devastation they felt after his death, the trial that freed their son s killer, and how they launched a movement that has galvanized the nation. In this intimate social justice story, Sybrina and Tracy show the extraordinary strength, dignity, grace, and faith it takes to turn pain into purpose, chaos into community, and their son s legacy into a cultural shift.

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

They killed my mother.They took our magic.They tried to bury us. Now we rise.

But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, anyone with powers was targeted and killed, leaving Zélie without a mother and her people without hope. Only a few people remain with the power to use magic, and they must remain hidden.

Zélie is one such person. Now she has a chance to bring back magic to her people and strike against the monarchy. With the help of a rogue princess, Zélie must learn to harness her powers and outrun the crown prince, who is hell-bent on eradicating magic for good.

Danger lurks in Orïsha, where strange creatures prowl, and vengeful spirits wait in the waters. Yet the greatest danger may be Zélie herself as she struggles to come to terms with the strength of her magic – and her growing feelings for an enemy.

The Whisperer by Donato Carrisi

Six severed arms are discovered, arranged in a mysterious circle and buried in a clearing in the woods. Five of them appear to belong to missing girls between the ages of eight and eighteen. The sixth is yet to be identified. Worse still, the girls’ bodies, alive or dead, are nowhere to be found.

Lead investigators Mila Vasquez, a celebrated profiler, and Goran Gavila, an eerily prescient criminologist, dive into the case. They’re confident they’ve got the right suspect in their sights until they discover no link between him and any of the kidnappings except the first. The evidence in the case of the second missing child points in a vastly different direction, creating more questions than it answers.

Vasquez and Gavila begin to wonder if they’ve been brought in to take the fall in a near-hopeless case. Is it all coincidence? Or is a copycat criminal at work? Obsessed with a case that becomes more tangled and intense as they unravel the layers of evil, Gavila and Vasquez find that their lives are increasingly in each other’s hands.

THE WHISPERER, as sensational a bestseller in Europe as the Stieg Larsson novels, is that rare creation: a thought-provoking, intelligent thriller that is also utterly unputdownable.

The Theseus Paradox by David Videcette

“I can’t tell you the truth, but I can tell you a story…”

How much is real and how much is fiction, only YOU can decide!

July 2005: in the midst of Operation Theseus, the largest police investigation that the UK has ever known, Detective Inspector Jake Flannagan begins to ask difficult questions that lead to the mysterious disappearance of his girlfriend and his sudden suspension from the Metropolitan Police.

Who masterminded London’s summer of terror?

Why can’t Flannagan make headway in the sprawling investigation?

Is Jake’s absent girlfriend really who she claims to be?

While hunting for the answers to the most complex case in British history, one man will uncover the greatest criminal deception of our time.

The author, David Videcette, is a former Scotland Yard Detective who has worked on a wealth of infamous cases, including the July 2005 London bombings. He has twenty years of policing and investigative experience, specialising in counter-terrorist operations and organised crime. He currently consults on security operations for high-net-worth individuals and is an expert media commentator on crime, terrorism, extremism and the London 7/7 and 21/7 bombings. David says, ‘I can’t tell you the truth, but I can tell you a story…’

What Lies Between Us by Nayomi Munaweera

Ganga, a young girl, grows up carefree in the midst of her loving family in an old and beautiful house nestled in the idyllic hill country of Sri Lanka. Her childhood is like any other–until it isn’t. A cherished friendship is revealed to have monstrous undertones and the consequences of trauma spell both the end of her childhood and that of her stable home. Ostracized by their community in the wake of one terrible night, Ganga and her mother seek safety by immigrating to America.

In America Ganga must negotiate the challenges and thrills of an American teenage girlhood. She navigates immigrancy and thrives. She fulfills the American dream by graduating from college, moving to San Francisco and working as a nurse, yet beneath the surface the scars of her past continue to haunt her. When she meets Daniel, a handsome, charismatic man and falls deeply in love, it appears that she has found her happily ever after. Instead, the secrets continue to corrode and an accidental pregnancy causes the marriage to further unravel. She cannot resist an encroaching darkness, and she finally commits one terrible act.

From award-winning author Nayomi Munaweera comes What Lies Between Us, the confession of a woman, driven by the demons of her past to commit a single and possibly unforgivable crime.

Someone give me a gold star, only 6 books! But 6 books I’m incredibly happy to finally own – I watched them from afar and now they’re all mine – Happy Birthday to me!

52 thoughts on “Birthday Book Haul (March 2018)”

Happy birthday! Is it today or am I too late already (as usual)? Only 6 books is quite alright.. I would still really want to see your library at home though.. I think it must be pretty impressive :-). That ‘sensational European’ thriller The Whisperer.. it’s the first time I’ve heard of it but it sounds pretty interesting!!

It’s today so you’re right on time! And thank you! I do have quite a collection but I also pass a lot of books on to fellow readers, I’m due a reorganisation so maybe I’ll take some pics 😊 The Whisperer was recommended to me on Instagram and I loved the sound of it, so I thought I’d give it a go, I do love Literary thrillers 😊

Happiest birthday to you!!! I love that you treated yourself to books you’ve been holding off on buying, the best idea 🙂 and this really made lol: “so I could wrap them up – to me, you’re the greatest, with love, from me”<–HA! I can't wait to hear your thoughts on They Can't Kill Us All and Rest in Power. Enjoy your day and all your new reads!!